2012 BITD Henderson 250 Cont.

Race day for the bikes began early. The flag dropped at sunrise putting THR Motorsports team riders Robby Bell and David Pearson in the lead. With such a solid start it was easy to see if they stayed mistake-free they woud stay there, which they did. Fellow teammates Tyler Renshaw and Ricky Brabec crossed the finish line two minutes behind, giving them a second-place finish. Third place went to Purvines Racing with riders Justin Morrow and Nick Burson. Matt Parks and Jason Spiess won the very close UTV battle with less than 40 seconds difference over Brandon Schueler and Blake Van De Loo placing them second in class.

The second race began at 9:00 a.m. with Bryan Folks winning in Class 1100 with a time of 3:06:37. The Class 2000 battle was won by Hank Winter followed closely by Vince Viola. The Trophy Lite winner was PJ Jones and Tim Casey driving the La Paz 8100 Stock Full. They finished first in class with a great time of 3:36:11, only 30 minutes off the overall leader.

The third race and main event started at 12:40 p.m. with MacCachren being first off the line. He used the starting position to his advantage and was first to cross the finish line to earn first place overall and first in Trick Trucks. This win locks up the Trick Truck Championship for MacCachren and Steve Saurapas. “The time splits were so close Steve decided not to do a drivers change to save time,” MacCahcren said after the race, which is a strategy that worked out well for them even though MacCachren got two flats on the last lap. Four minutes and 24 seconds later Lofton took the checkered flag for second overall and first in Class 1500. On the podium Justin laughed and said, “I had no rear brakes the entire race. I think I went faster without them. I would hit the brakes and it would rip the steering wheel out of my hands so I just didn’t use them.”

When Shawn Croll crossed the finish line in his smashed-up truck, finishing third overall and second in Trick Truck, he was thrilled with the result after such a hectic race. “Twenty miles in I was hauling ass doing 80 mph in the dust and a JeepSpeed was sitting right in the middle of the course doing 20 mph,” Croll said. “We pounded him and ripped apart his rear end and smashed up our front end good. We immediately pulled over, got the thumbs up and made sure they were ok. I knew I had to make up time so we motored on and I can’t believe we still got second in class.” 

Third place in Trick Truck and fourth overall went to Mark Weyhrich. With mixed emotions about the option to drop your worst race for the championship point battle he said, “This win is like sour grapes about the drop your worst race deal. If not for that we would be the champions, but to get second place to Rob Mac is cool.”

Derrick Sproule took second place in Class 1500 and third place went to Garrick Freitas. With all the top finishers done, it was still Robby Gordon who dominated most of the season and came out on top taking the overall championship and earning the unofficial title of “fastest guy in the desert” for the BITD 2012 season.

Congratulations to all the racers and BITD for putting on a great series. We can’t wait for the 2013 BITD season opener, The Blue Water Parker 425. For more information, visit http://www.bitd.com/.